Fleeting
Summer ended,
the last butterfly
does not migrate,
lands on sheltered tree,
expires, a brief life
without knowledge
of good or evil,
only touching
those who noticed.
In My Lifetime
When I was young
I walked the shores
of oceans, seas.
The water was clear
if I didn’t go too deep
and I could see the bottom
as marine life went on,
eating and being eaten.
The sands were clean
when the tides changed
delivering sea shells,
sand crabs, jetsam,
bright green sea weed,
to waiting shorebirds.
I no longer walk the shores,
but from chair of confinement
I see the brown ocean
tainted beyond redemption
by the spigots of oil.
The fish and birds are fewer,
declining faster,
ably assisted by man
covering the shores and seas
with hospital waste, toxins,
other imaginable filth.
I watch the lonely sandpiper
scurry along the sterile sand
yearning for the flock,
the flock that has departed
like many other creatures
that once shared the earth.
Summer Camp
I sent my son to summer camp
for a new experience
far from gritty, city streets,
so he could breath clean air,
discover nature’s beauty,
learn self-reliance.
I did not know that far away
a boy went to another camp
with the blessing of his parents,
a Taliban training camp,
in the tribal area
of unruly Pakistan.
The Taliban curriculum
was divided into sections
bomb making most attended,
reconnaissance, ambushes,
firing machine guns
all led to graduation.
The boys returned home
when summer was over,
bringing skills they could use
for the rest of their lives.
I hope my son
never meets his fellow camper.
The Nature of Cities
The city,
monstrous creation,
aberration
substituting artifice
for natural existence,
while planners claim
safety, commerce, comforts,
group interaction,
are civilized ways.
We have constructed
sites of oppression,
except for the privileged.
Many huddle together
in poverty, squalor,
never understanding
they are descendents
of unfit nomads
left by the wayside
in tribal trek.
(Note: The above poems are from his latest collection, Blossoms of Decay)
About the author:
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director, and as an art dealer when he couldn’t make a living in theater. He has 12 published chapbooks and 1 accepted for publication. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction (Skive Press), Expectations (Rogue Scholars Press) , Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors and Perturbations (Winter Goose Publishing), Rude Awakenings and The Remission of Order , Blossoms of Decay (Wordcatcher Publishing) among others. His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press), Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing), Call to Valor (Gnome on Pigs Productions) and Sudden Conflicts (Lillicat Publishers). His short story collections include A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications) and Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing). His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.
